A domain name registrar is a company that manages the reservation of Internet domain names. A domain name registrar must be accredited by a generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) registry or a country code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) registry. The management is done in accordance with the guidelines of the designated domain name registries. Originally all domains were registered though Internic, then Network Solutions, and now there are several competing registrars in an open marketplace.
Top 5 Registrar services
The Good
- Name Silo best value, low cost, free DNS and Free Contact Privacy WhoisGuard
- Dotster - New control interface, now offering free DNS too.
- Network Solutions - not a good value, but the oldest and lest likely to go defunct.
- Name.com - another popular registrar.
- 1&1 - offering low cost email and hosting starting at a dollar.
The Bad
- Namecheap - NO LONGER RECOMMENDED, unless you like to have your domain names constantly suspended even though you have paid.
*. Top 5 picks selected by affiliate author review (www.techreviewcentral.com).
Additional Resources
HowTo Use NameCheap.com covers many of the common tasks associated with domain transfer and management within this registrar. Namecheap not only offers domain name registration, the company offers DNS hosting at no additional cost. Their DNS management tool is also covered in the guide.